Lent, 4th Sunday (Year C) · ISIS doesn’t believe in a merciful God. The Calvinists didn’t either. They were responding to the immorality of their day but in a way that becomes severe and oppressive. God’s response is found in today’s Gospel. The younger son doesn’t think he deserves mercy. The older son doesn’t realize he needs mercy. Both are missing their Father’s love. The Father will run to meet you in the Confessional. Where will Hollywood and ISIS see God’s merciful love, if they do not see it in us? And how can we be merciful like the Father if we have not allowed the Father to be merciful to us?